10 



SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



[Jan. 1, 1S66. 



If one of these semi-double flowers be examined, 

 it will be found that each stamen has become, not 

 merely a new petal, but actually a new flower, for it 

 forms a tube, the mouth of which consists of, on one 

 side a crimson nectary, on the other a white petal 

 (fig. 10, a), and frequently, attached to this nectary, 

 a bristle (fig. 10, b), which I take to be a rudimentary 

 stamen. These six new petals do not unite like the 

 outer petals of the flower, but are always distinct 

 from each other ; and if the flower becomes quite 

 double, it is by a multiplication of these inner florets, 

 the change sometimes extending itself to the pistil, 

 which separates into three unshapely petals. 



Fig. 10. 



In the autumn my children brought me half-a- 

 dozen double damsons which were all found 

 on one tree. The old order Rosacea is, now-a-days, 

 broken up into several minor orders, one of which is 

 Brupaceee, which is distinguished from Rosacea; 

 proper mainly by there being only one ovary in the 

 flower instead of several, this one ovary becoming 

 eventually what we call a " stone fruit." If any 

 plum tree be examined whilst in blossom, one can 

 scarcely fail in finding a few flowers in which there 

 are two, three, or more pistils and as many carpels, 

 showing a tendency in the order Drupacese "to 

 assume one of the distinguishing characters of 

 Roseworts," as noticed by the late Dr. Lindley in 

 his " Vegetable Kingdom " (Order Drupacea:, p. 

 557). Generally, I think, these polygynous flowers 

 drop off. Sometimes, no doubt, one carpel will come 

 to maturity and the others will dwindle away, and 

 we have only a one-celled fruit from several pistils, 

 as is the rule in Cocoa-nuts, Hazel-nuts, and many 

 other plants. But occasionally all the pistils become 

 fertilized, and the result is a compound fruit as in 

 the present instance. 



More than one botanical friend has remarked to 

 me upon the prevalence of monstrous forms of 

 flowers during the past summer. As far as my own 

 experience goes, I have not found them more plenti- 

 ful than usual ; indeed, I think that a wet season is 

 generally more productive of abnormal growth than 



a dry one, such as we have had. But I am rather 

 inclined to think that 1 do see, last year, some little 

 difference in the character of the abnormal forms; 

 that, whereas, in ordinary seasons, the tendency in 

 monstrous flowers is a reversion to leaves ; this has 

 not been so much the case during the dry, hot 

 summer of 1865. Robert Holland. 



VEGETABLE E1BRES. 



A Ta recent meeting of the Quekett Microscopical 

 -£^- Club, a paper was read on the application of 

 the microscope to the discrimination of vegetable 

 fibres. The object of this communication was to 

 point out what had been done, and to suggest what 

 remained to be accomplished, and the best mode of 

 performing it. Although adulterations of food have 

 been well cared for and deeply investigated, adul- 

 terations or admixtures in fabrics, whether of 

 animal or vegetable origin, have hitherto obtained 

 but little attention. Yet, it is urged, the subject is 

 an important one and well deserving systematic re- 

 search. All fibres employed for commercial pur- 

 poses may be divided into four classes, two of which 

 are animal — /. e., wool and silk — and two vegetable ; 

 which may be termed vascular and cellular. 



Wool has a peculiar structure, readily to be dis- 

 tinguished from all other animal and vegetable fibres 

 (fig. 11, b), and differing slightly in its own varieties, 



Fi£. 11. O. Cotton ; 0. Wool ; c. Silk. 



as may be seen by reference to a paper on hairs in 

 our first volume. (Vol. i. p. 29.) Yet we have no 

 work of authority, and no reliable figures of the 

 microscopic appearances of different qualities and 

 classes of wool, even of those ordinarily met with in 

 commerce. It must be possible to characterize mi- 

 croscopic features whereby Saxony can be distin- 

 guished from South-down, and Australian from East 

 Indian. 

 Silk (fig. 11, c) is more uniform in its character, 



